Backed by Google, Chinese watch takes on Apple in the US with Mobvoi's Ticwatch

Mobvoi, the Chinese AI startup backed by Google, intends to go toe-to-toe with Apple when it begins selling its smartwatches in the US in September.

The four-year-old startup founded by a coterie of former Googlers is hoping American consumers will take to the second generation of the Ticwatch, which made waves back home via voice-activated natural language search and innovative features like a touchsensitive strip for scrolling. The new version responds to questions in English and will let US users order pizzas, hail Ubers and pick out restaurants on Yelp.

The $200 gadget will go for a fraction of the standard-issue Apple Watch and is roughly $100 cheaper than Motorola’s latest Moto 360. Li Zhifei, founder and CEO of the Beijing-based company, reckons he could sell about 50,000 of the devices within a year of its US debut. Alphabet’s Google led Mobvoi’s last round of financing in October, valuing the company at $300 million.

“The Google label definitely helped us in marketing, but our core advantages are AI technologies that allow machines to understand natural languages, a self-developed system and self-designed hardware,” said Li, who helped develop Google’s translation software before founding Mobvoi in 2012. The Ticwatch 2 however is debuting at a time of flagging demand, as potential buyers await hardware improvements.

Several people ET spoke with about Ericsson’s India operations, including its current and former employees, said the Stockholm-based firm has reduced headcount in the last one year or so across functions, in line with its global restructuring.